N'est plus l'ennui: Boredom no longer...

Boredom no longer... at least for today.

I awoke to cool (well, 73º, anyway), overcast skies and no wind. That means cycling time! So off we went, that spouse o' mine and I, for what was to be a 10-mile ride. But it was so nice, we made it 22 miles instead. I wonder what people do for excitement, those who do not get outdoors to walk/run/cycle/meander? My excitement on this bike ride was a loud noise emanating from the deep ditch just as we passed by. And then a GIANT thing arose. Just as we passed by. It was big and blue. For maybe .05th of a second I could have sworn a giant pterodactyl was arising out of the mist. But it turned out to be a blue heron. Right by us. Just as we passed by.

It looked like this one:

Not to be confused with a white heron,
like the one Daughter #1 and I spotted on our drive to Oklahoma last week.
It looked like this one:
Big birds, they are!

I only had time to exclaim, "Oh, my! Did you see that?!" and the blue heron was airborne in one direction, and we were heading down the highway in the other. But seeing it up close like that just made my bike ride.

And back to the title of this post: N'est plus l'ennui
It's in French because I felt like it. Hey, it's my blog. Since we have been watching scenes from the French countryside for 3 weeks, compliments of those adventurous Tour de France cyclists, I decided to tip my blog in their direction on this, the final 2010 stage of le Tour.

Boredome is no longer, at least for today, in part because of the near-sighting of my giant pterodactyl, and because of the following:

Lemon cucumbers from the Darwinian Garden
(this photo could almost be a Vermeer painting, I think,
if not for Kitchenaid appliance and electrical outlet in it.)

A couple of months ago I put an avocado pit into the pot, alongside the ivy.
And I promptly forgot about it.
WHO KNEW the thing would actually take off like this, forgotten and uncared-for?!

I got so excited about the avocado, that I put a piece of ginger in another pot, which at that time housed my poinsettias from Christmas.
(more on the poinsettias later...)
I checked on the ginger this afternoon -
WEEKS after burying the root and once again forgetting about it.
Well, lookie here:

As for my Christmas poinsettias? They were BIG and pretty by the time June rolled around. I knew that in Australia, poinsettias can grow as tall as houses. So I transplanted mine in my shade garden, by the hostas and elephant ears. I was expecting wonderful things!

The next day I went out. Biserka, the 85-lb puppy, had laid on them and killed them.

We will have another go on the Poinsettia Project next summer.